3D Printer Advice Please.

[rockyboy]

I'm sure glad I got a 3d printer and built a machine or two with it before I ran into you guys. This is all so neat and great... but really overwhelming and intimidating to me. I'd never have gotten started doing this stuff if I'd been aware of all this stuff first...

Ya know - that's how I got started on tri-copters - thank goodness for ignorance

3D printing can be pretty intimidating, just like other aspects of RC - but we're a pretty friendly bunch who can help people into it. Very happy we have a dedicated forum for these machines now

 

[jhitesma]

Few quick photos to go with my prior comments.

My super ugly popsicle stick to keep filament from coming off the spool and tangling. It ain't pretty but it hasn't failed me yet despite a few spools that really tried hard to tangle!


My quick and dirty oiler. You can see that the clothespin has absorbed a bunch of oil from being on there so long. I don't soak the towel or anything, just a few drops every couple of weeks. But it's oil and it creeps!


Oh...and that Noctura 40mm fan on the e3d...HIGHLY recommended! I couldn't believe how crazy loud the stock fan on the e3d was. But this Noctura is SILENT. The extruder fan went from being the loudest most obnoxious thing on my printer to the quietest. In fact, now I can hear that the bearings on the layer fan are starting to go - before I couldn't even tell when that fan was on or off

 

[jhitesma]

It's not a 3d lab prints...but....



Right center wing section for: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2044074

Not a perfect print...but a good starting point.

Big issue is he suggests a 0.6mm single wall with a 0.4mm nozzle. I got a 0.48mm wall since that's what a 0.4mm nozzle's extrusion width is...but I've got a few things I'm going to try. I also printed it at 60mm/min instead of 30 as suggested which may have contributed to a few of the minor issues it has.

Still, lots of potential and more luck than I've had with 3dlab prints sample parts so going to keep going at this a bit more I think.

 

[GremlinRC]

It's not a 3d lab prints...but....

Looks pretty darn perfect to me Jason. I saw that plane on thingiverse and a few video's the guy made on youtube, he is one smart kid!

I've been having more luck too. Couple of changes made a huge difference.

1st is the spool holder, I quickly knocked up this, the spool now rotates on two bearings, the oiler also helps keep tension and stops the spool uncoiling. Must replace the wood with a 3d printed version soon.



Couple of settings made a huge difference.
Turns out I was under retracting. The 3dlabprint settings file had a setting of 0.3mm. I found what was happening was the under retraction was leading to little nodules at the end of sharp points and corners which could in turn catch and interrupt the flow while printing the thin wall. I experimented and found a setting of 3.0mm worked much better.

The other change I made was to the acceleration parameters. They were set too high by default and caused a shake when changing direction suddenly. I knocked 20% off the accelleration and the difference is very apparent. Even the noise of the process sounds better.

The problem is now I'd love a second printer to speed up the process. However if my wife ever even reads this post, I'm soo dead!

 

[dkj4linux]

...
The problem is now I'd love a second printer to speed up the process. However if my wife ever even reads this post, I'm soo dead!
...

Too funny! But now that you have a 3d printer you can do it on the "sly"... use it to build the 2nd printer from scratch. She'll never know... and just think it's another CNC machine you're building -- David